(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic medical records, more particularly, to an individualized electronic medical record system for providing a patient with a comprehensive collection of records, stored on CD rom or similar mobile storage device, that includes patient medical and family history, immunization records, information on any diagnosis and treatment from any physician, specialist, and hospital visits, test data in any media including video, surgeries, gene therapy, and other medical procedures, and medications (past and present), as well as adverse reactions or allergies to medications.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In general, it is known in the art to use a medical records system that creates and maintains data electronically. Additionally, it is known in the art to include annotation in medical records and to incorporate paper files and mainframe data for a patient in electronic medical records. However, overall, these and related systems fail to provide any consideration for patient access to her/his personal information and records, which actually belong to the patient, in any media. Furthermore, generally, a given patient over her/his lifetime seeks medical care and treatment, for emergency medical care, for ongoing non-urgent conditions, and for maintenance of good health, from a broad range of medical care providers, diverse in specialty as well as geographic location. Due to the broad and disconnected geographic and temporal discontinuous medical care received by a patient, the patient""s medical records are practically inaccessible and unmanageable by the patient and often the medical community at large. Even if access to the personal medical records by the patient were possible, the dissimilar forms and formats used by various medical care providers would make it unreasonable and nearly impossible to store the records in a single source, much less in an electronic format.
Typically, medical records systems for electronically storing data have been established and maintained on a mainframe computer, computer server or land area network within a medical provider""s locality, e.g., hospital, doctor""s office, laboratory, etc. Historically, individual patients have not had access to their own personal medical history and data, including diagnoses, treatments, medications, lab and other test results, like video imaging, X-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), CT scans, etc., prognoses, alternative treatments available, and the like. By way of example, it is known in the art to provide an electronic medical records system that creates and maintains all patient data electronically, including patient complaints, lab orders, medications, diagnoses, and procedures at its source at the time of entry using a graphical user interface having touch screens. Also, access to reference databases for consultation is included in the system. This and similar medical records systems is problematic because it does not provide the patient with unlimited access to her/his own medical records at any time. Furthermore, there exists a substantial risk of miscommunication, misunderstanding, lack of understanding or even lack of knowledge of past medical problems and procedures by the patient regarding her/his own medical background. Also, issues of patient privacy and concerns for privacy and data access arise, particularly in large systems. Thus, existing electronic medical records systems inadequately addresses the problem and issue of providing unlimited, convenient and accurate access for the patient to her/his own medical records. Therefore, there remains a need for an individualized electronic medical record system for providing a patient with a comprehensive collection of her/his personal medical records and data, stored on CD rom or similar mobile storage device.
Additionally, other prior art medical records systems and/or methods for electronically storing patient medical records and data fail to provide means for the patient to have reasonably quick and easy access to the information and for patient-controlled maintenance and easy transport of comprehensive personal medical records, i.e. carrying medical records on the patient""s person for travel and/or other medical visits to different physicians, specialists, and hospitals, and continuous transport of medical records available for access by emergency medical treatment service providers. For example, it is known in the art to provide a method for storing data to a central medical repository, the stored data being extracted from medical service record documents in any format from medical service providers. Alternatively, it is also known in the art to provide a method for automatic posting of medical insurance claims using a computerized data base system and data disposed in a known format. Also, it is known to provide an information exchange system for exchanging health care insurance information between an insurer and multiple health care providers. However, this type of system requires computer connection over a local area network and a proprietary database over the Internet for transfer of the information, and the patient does not have access to any of the information.
Finally, it is known in the art to provide a patient-based medical record system that electronically stores information on a portable storage device. However, such a system requires specialized reading devices and systems, without which the information is not accessible or readable. Furthermore, these systems do not provide means for converting text, image and other data formats to a format that is both storable and readable without requiring specialized reading apparatus. Conversion of a national or international health care system to use of electronic medical records stored on devices that require specialized reading devices is not economically feasible. Additionally, large institutions cannot and often will not agree upon a universal format; however, a patient-driven system can start immediately. Also, every patient would also be required to have such a reading device or have access to one in order to review her/his records. Thus, there remains a need for an individual patient-based and patient-controlled practical, effective and efficient electronic medical records system.
The present invention is directed to an individualized patient electronic medical records system that provides unlimited patient access to her/his medical records, including text and other data, including but not limited to lab results, EKGs, X-rays, video imaging, etc. Additionally, the invention may include a benchmark against which medical treatments can be evaluated for compliance with reasonable standard of care or a prompt to indicate appropriate testing, medications, etc., based upon the patient""s age, sex, etc. Also, the invention is applicable to human patients and to animal patients. Advantages of the invention include patient ownership, control, and access to her/his individual records at any time. Also, the patient can review and enter comments or questions or self-reported data for assessment on her/his data record for review and consideration by a physician. Also, itemization of medical care providers comments, results, and data facilitate review by the patient as well as insurance providers, thereby preventing misunderstanding and fraud. Furthermore, the patient can carry the medical record on her/his person so that the information is readily accessible in the event of an emergency or if s/he were traveling. Finally, any entry to the medical records is coded or identified by the provider or patient her/himself, and a password or other write-protect means prevents tampering or altering information entered by someone else. However, access to the information by medical care providers and/or insurance providers and administrators, particularly emergency medical care providers, is not impeded by password or other protective means.
Thus, the present invention provides an individualized patient electronic medical records system for unlimited patient access to her/his personal and comprehensive medical records.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is to provide an individualized patient electronic medical records system that provides unlimited patient access to her/his medical records, including text and other data. Still another aspect of the present invention is to provide an individualized patient electronic medical records system that provides unlimited patient access to her/his medical records, including text and other data stored on a portable electronic data and information storage device. Additionally, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide an individualized patient electronic medical records system that provides unlimited patient access to her/his medical records, including text and other data, which permits medical care providers and the patient to enter and record data in a readable format with encoding or other identification of date, time, and entity entering the data and/or information.
Also, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a comprehensive electronic individual patient medical records system that identifies multiple users, particularly multiple medical care providers, and the treatments they perform or prescribe for the patient for review by insurance providers, including medicare, Medicaid, veterans administration, and other government-based providers, to prevent duplicate insurance filings and fraud.
Finally, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide the individual patient with full disclosure of and full access to individual patient medical records and history.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after a reading of the following description of the preferred embodiment when considered with the drawings.